Café Chantant

(Fr., singing café). A predecessor of the CABARET that flourished in Paris between 1852 and 1870. The repertoire usually consisted of sentimental ballads. It eventually evolved into larger places of entertainment of which the most celebrated was the Folies-Bergère (follies of the Bergère district). The shows became more sexually explicit as well, featuring scantily clad young ladies. When the café chantant was transferred to England it assumed the name MUSIC HALL but was scorned by Victorian society as a center of low-class entertainment.